Turn-over apparatus



Dec. 26, 1967 H. C. JOHNSON TURN-OVER APPARATUS Filed July .7, 1966 Java/[W jvamyfy C yak/50;! (9 @M um,

Qttaryem United States Patent 3,360,103 TURN-OVER APPARATUS Harvey C. Johnson, Sheboygan, Wis., assignor to Curt G. Joa, Inc., Sheboygan Falls, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Filed July 7, 1966, Ser. No. 563,580 10 Claims. (Cl. 19833) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Disclosed herein is apparatus for use with a conveyor to turn over articles carried by the conveyor. The turn over apparatus includes a fixed fulcrum which is located above the conveyor, and an elevator located on the sides of the conveyor which raises the conveyed article as it approaches the fulcrum so that the article engages the fulcrum. Upstanding lugs on the conveyor exert pressure on the rearward end of the article. Continued movement of the conveyor turns the article about the fulcrum to flip the article over on its back.

This invention relates to turn-over apparatus, particularly adapted to invert a packaged article to facilitate the application of a label thereto.

The invention will be exemplified in its illustrated embodiment in which a cartoned book is to be turned over on its back to present an unbroken carton surface to a labeling machine. The invention is not limited, however, to turning over cartoned books, but is applicable wherever an article is to be turned over.

The apparatus of the present invention has a turnover plow blade which is spaced above a conveyor on Which the article is pushed by a conveyor flight or lug. Beneath the plow there is an article elevator driven in coordinated timed relation with the movement of the conveyor, thus to lift the front end of the article just before it reaches the plow so that the article contacts the plow. Continued movement of the conveyor and thrusting pressure of the flight against the rear of the article will force the article to follow a turn-over path along the curved plow blade, thus to flip the article over on its back.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will appear from the following disclosure in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of apparatus embodying the invention.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary elevation showing the apparatus in a different position.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of the apparatus.

Although the disclosure hereof is detailed and exact to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, the physical embodiments herein disclosed merely exemplify the invention which may be embodied in other specific structure. The scope of the invention is defined in the claims appended hereto.

The article 10 illustrated herein is a cartoned book. Large multicolored printed editions of fine quality books are typically shipped through the mails in a flat cardboard carton. As the cartoned book comes from a cartoning machine (not shown), it is delivered to a slat conveyor 11 which delivers it to a labeling machine (not shown). The cartoned book 10 lies flat on the conveyor 11 with its seamed face 12 uppermost. This is illustrated at 10a in FIG. 1. It is also shown in FIG. 3, the seam being shown at 13. Carton 10 is somewhat Wider than the slats 11. Accordingly, the lateral margins of the carton 10 will overhang the slats at each side of the conveyor as illustrated.

Carton 10 is pushed on the conveyor by the pusher lugs or flights 14. The conveyor 11 is loaded from the cartoning machine so that there will be a carton 10 in alternate conveyor compartments defined by the successive flights 14.

The turn-over apparatus of the present invention will turn the carton 10 over so that its seam 13 is at the bottom of the carton, thus presenting uppermost the unbroken face of the carton to which a label can be applied by the labeling machine.

The turn-over apparatus of the present invention consists of a curved plow blade 15 which is mounted on the conveyor frame 16 on a bridge 17 supported from the frame 16 on the masts 18. The curved plow blade 15 has a bottom edge 21 which is spaced above the level of conveyor 11 and extends transversely across the path of the conveyor 11 as it moves in the direction of arrow 22.

The concave face of curved blade 15 faces rearwardly so as to define a turn-over path for the carton 10. The forward or advance end of the carton is lifted upwardly from its bed on the conveyor 11 by the turn-over elevator cams or arms 23. There is a pair of these arms 23, one at each side of the slat conveyor 11. Accordingly, the conveyor 11 passes therebetween without mutual interference.

Arms 23 are fixed to elevator actuator means including a common shaft 24 which is supported at its respective ends on the journal blocks 25. Shaft 24 is rotated in the direction of arrow 20 by chain 27 through sprocket 26. Chain 27 is driven by another sprocket 30 on a shaft 31 which is also connected to the sprocket 32 about which a drive chain 33 for the slat conveyor 11 travels. The relative dimensions of the respective sprockets 26, 30, 32 are such that the elevator cams or arms 23 are timed to lift the front end of the article 10 as it approaches the turn-over plow blade 15. This elevates the front end of the article 10, as shown in full lines in FIG. 1. The front end of the article 10 will then contact the lower portion of the plow 15. Under pressure of the conveyor lug 14 the article Will move successively in the direction of arrow 28 to its positions shown in dotted lines at 10b, 10c, 10d (FIG. 2) and 10e (FIG. 1).

When the article 10 arrives at its position shown at in FIG. 1, it will engage the lowermost edge 21 of the blade 15. Edge 21 acts as a fixed fulcrum against which flight 14 urges the article, thus to flip the article over on its back, in the manner illustrated in FIG. 2. Meanwhile, flight 14 continues to advance. Accordingly, the article 10 will fall into the interflight space to the rear of flight 14, as is illustrated in dotted lines at 10c in FIG. 1. Also as shown in FIG. 2, elevator arms 23 by now have moved to positions below the conveyor 11 and hence are out of the way of the article 10 as it falls onto the conveyor.

The turn-over path of the article is guarded by a cage 29 consisting of parts including a guard strip 34 which has a fixed connection as by the rivets 35 with the adjustable bridge 36 of a support yoke 37 which has legs 38 with out-turned feet 41 connected by the bolts 42 or the like to the bridge 17. Bridge 36 of yoke 37 is adjustably mounted on the legs 38 by reason of the registering slots 43 formed therein and the adjustable thumb nuts 44.

Guard strip 34 has an overlapping slip connection with the curved plate 15, as shown at 45. Accordingly, adjustment of the size of the cage by advancing or retracting the yoke bridge 36 with respect to the yoke legs 38 is accommodated by sliding movement of the end of the curved strip 34 with the blade 15 at the overlapped portions thereof. In this manner the size of the cage 29 is adjustable according to the size of the article 10.

Slat conveyor 11 is driven by chain 46 engaged with sprocket 47 on shaft 48 to which a smaller sprocket 51 is attached and over which the conveyor chain 33 passes. Accordingly, power for both the conveyor 11 and the elevator arms 23 is supplied from the power source from chain 46 and both are inherently driven in timed relation.

As thus far described, the articles 10 which are supplied to alternate compartments of the slat conveyor 11 with their seams 13 upwardly exposed are flipped over by the turn-over apparatus and fall into the next rearwardly adjacent compartment in which they have their unbroken faces uppermost for application thereto of a label or the like. In many instances, however, a converse turnover sequence is desired. For example, the articles may originally be supplied with their seamed sides down, and it is desired to flip them over to expose such seamed sides. The same apparatus is adapted for either sequence.

I claim:

1. The combination with an article conveyor, of article turn-over apparatus comprising a fixed fulcrum spaced above the conveyor, an article elevator beneath the fulcrum and elevator actuator means timed with the conveyor to lift the article into contact with thefulcrum whereby conveyor movement will turn the article about the fulcrum.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the elevator comprises a pair of rotating arms at the sides of the conveyor and aligned to act upon marginal portions of the article which overhang the conveyor laterally.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the elevator comprises a rotating arm timed to lift the front end of the article into contact with the fulcrum and to retract below the level of the conveyor before arrival of the rear end of the article therebeneath.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 including a plow blade having a lower elge spaced above the conveyor and extending transversely of the path of conveyor travel, said edge constituting the fulcrum about which said article is flipped on its back under pressure of the conveyor.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 in which the conveyor has flights by which conveyor pressure is transmitted to the article.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 in combination with a guide cage about the turn-over path of the article.

7. The apparatus of claim 4 in which said cage includes a curved strip which forms an extension of said plow blade.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 in which said cage comprises expandable parts whereby the size of the cage is adjustable.

9. The apparatus of claim 4 in combination with a guide cage comprising a yoke having an adjustable bridge and a curved strip connected with said bridge and having a slip connection with the plow.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 in which said conveyor comprises a slat conveyor with a chain drive, said elevator comprising a rotary cam, and a chain drive from the conveyor to the cam to coordinate the movements thereof.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,692,670 10/ 1954 Lescallette 19833 3,275,122 9/1966 Carlson 198-33 EDWARD A. SROKA, Primary Examiner. 

1. THE COMBINATION WITH AN ARTICLE CONVEYOR, OF ARTICLE TURN-OVER APPARATUS COMPRISING A FIXED FULCURM SPACED ABOVE THE CONVEYOR, AN ARTICLE ELEVATOR BENEATH THE FULCRUM THE ELEVATOR ACTUATOR MEANS TIMED WITH THE CONVEYOR TO LIFT THE ARTICLE INTO CONTACT WITH THE FULCRUM WHEREBY CONVEYOR MOVEMENT WILL TURN THE ARTICLE ABOUT THE FULCRUM. 